Australian Wildfires Claimed The lives of 1 Billion Wildlife.

Started since September Australian wildfires have done a great amount of damage to the Australian wild life and vegetation. It is considered to be one of the largest wildfire ever recorded. The Australian wild fire has covered areas eight times larger than the California’s wildfire in 2018 which was the state’s most destructive wildfire. The fires have now killed at least 25 people and destroyed almost 2,000 homes. The blazes turned skies orange and made breathing the air in Sydney as bad as smoking 37 cigarettes. The wildlife has suffered heavy damage.  An estimated 1 billion animals have been lost, and scientists fear long-term damage to many sensitive ecosystems.

So what started the fires? There were many reasons behind it. Some were by lighting and some by human action. 21 Australians were arrested for deliberately setting fires. However, it’s the climate conditions that provide ample fuel for the fires to grow and spread. Before the fires ignited, Australia was already enduring its hottest and driest year on record. Its summertime in the southern hemisphere and the heat keeps rising. The winds resulted in heat waves and cause the fire to spread rapidly. Over the weekend, wind gusted up to 80 mph, fanning flames and pushing heavy smoke over major cities.

Australia is one of the great bio diversity hotspots in the world. The island of Australia was isolated form rest of the world for millions of years, allowing evolution to take strange new paths, and until fairly recently, with little human influence. Australia was a safe haven for its wild animals. It all changed with the wild fires. Many wild animals and some farm animals have been killed directly by the flames. We can see the evidence with our own eyes: Distressing images of burned kangaroos and koalas, and videos of dead animals on the sides of the roads, have circulated online over the past week. The ones who survived are facing the loss of their natural habitat on which they rely on food and shelter. Not just the wild animals but many insects which are the important part of the ecosystem have perished in the wild fire. Around 8000 of Australians koalas have died in the fires. This has the potential of driving the koalas toward extinctions. Fires have also burned through critical habitat of native Australian mammals such as the long-footed potoroo, the mountain pygmy possum, the yellow-bellied glider and the brush-tailed rock wallaby, and bird species such as the critically endangered regent honeyeater, according to the World Wildlife Fund in Australia.

The government is trying restlessly to tackle this crisis. Online donations to the victims are being made from all around the world. Many NGOs and INGOs in Australia are helping with all their might. Australia needs support from everyone to face this terrible crisis.